Cafeteria to Class Series
by ShouldHaveStuckToReading
Summary: The series that remained a one-shot. A smart girl and a conceited boy who see each other for the first time in the cafeteria, become lab partners in class. AH.


**This was supposed to be a series of stories based on the cafeteria and biology class scenes when Bella and Edward first see each other. I wrote one, outlined and drafted a few more, and then got distracted. So now it is just a one-shot, but I've kept "series" in the name so I can continue to lol at myself. **

**Song: Mr Self Destruct – NIN**

**Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight.**

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Edward:

I was in a constant state of irritation this morning. Fucking Rose. She knew just how to piss me off and she had been absolutely deliberate this morning, taking her time looking at herself—again! Like her hair ever fucking changed.

Every morning we went through the same shit. Everyone would get ready, no one would eat, and then we would leave. En route, Emmett would tell filthy jokes, Alice would piss on our outfits, Jasper would complain about being hungry, and Rose would do that fucking annoying sigh thing where she managed to convey her disdain for the world and everything in it. She never, ever got to ride shotgun.

This morning, Rose had decided to be more of a bitch. She spent three minutes too long looking at herself in the fucking mirror. And because of Rose and her fucking vanity, we were running three minutes late. I couldn't drive any faster to school than I already did. It's called precision fucking driving—I can't get anymore fucking precise.

We were still three minutes late when we pulled into the grounds. Apparently, three minutes is all it takes to lose a fucking car park too. Another car I didn't recognise was parked in my spot. I reasoned it had to be the new girl starting today; no one who was aware of me would ever knowingly park in my spot.

I was late to class for the first time ever, which was totally fucked because it was like the teacher was just waiting for some shit like that to happen so he could be an prick to me. I got a detention—stupid fuck—for being three minutes late. Fucking years of being perfectly punctual, and not an ounce of cred for it. Asshole.

English wasn't any better. We started on Romeo and Juliet. I'd known it was coming, but that didn't stop the frustration at having to read that shit—again. Romeo is a douche. Of course, Berty saw fit to make me read Romeo—me! The rest of the class carefully kept their eyes toward the front, every single one of them fighting to not fucking laugh out loud.

It felt like nothing was going fucking right today. By the time lunch rolled around I had not had a single fucking positive experience. I joined the queue in the cafeteria and chose pizza for lunch. I was beyond caring about flavour. Food was sustenance—nothing else.

I walked over to our table and sat down, glaring at Rose in the process. Alice and Jasper were still absent, so I didn't have to be nice.

"Oh, come on, Edward! You can't still be pissing about this morning," she snapped. Emmett sunk back in his chair, pulling his hands back into his lap. Rose always got antsy about being touched when she was mad.

"Your vanity has fucked with my day like you wouldn't believe. Tomorrow, drive your own fucking car."

"It will be my pleasure, asshole. But you can be the one to tell Carlisle." A snort escaped Emmett's mouth and he glanced up at me apologetically. He thought she had me. Carlisle was an awesome guardian, but he was also Forks' answer to Al Gore. Whenever the issue of transportation had come up he had emphatically stated that he would only allow two cars to leave the house every morning. If one of them didn't want to ride with me, they had to get a ride with him—in the smart car.

"I will tell Carlisle," I scoffed, "I'll tell him that he is getting a ride from you. You have fucked with my day for the last time Rose—"

I was cut off by the arrival of Alice and Jasper, both of them glass-eyed. Jasper's tray was overflowing with pizza and fries. Alice had a bottle of flavored mineral water.

"For God's sake Edward, you were just a little late to school. Get over it already," Alice said lazily as she flopped into her chair. Jasper sat beside her and didn't even bother to make eye contact before hoeing into his feast.

"My thoughts exactly," Rosalie huffed.

Sensing the argument was over Emmett moved his hands back over to Rose, encircling her waist. She looked into his eyes and smiled seductively, looking for all the world like a blow-up doll. He was biting his lip in a way that turned my fucking stomach. When Rose stood up and reached her hand down for Emmett to take, he practically jumped out of his seat. She sent me one last glare before turning and leading Emmett out to fuck knows where. I sure didn't want to know.

"Huh," Alice said softly, not even noticing Rose had left. "That must be the new girl," she nodded slightly toward the food area. I looked over and could make out a skinny girl with really messy, long brown hair. She was pretty, I guess. Her face was heart-shaped, and she was pale—not the tanned blond I was expecting from Phoenix. She headed slowly over to one of the more crowded tables where some of my least favorite people sat. I followed her with my eyes to where she sat, and watched as she looked up from her tray and scanned the room, assessing everyone voyeuristically.

Then her eyes met mine.

Bella:

"And this is the lunch room. You can sit with us today, but maybe tomorrow you might find someone else to sit with?" Jessica smiled sweetly but her words were vicious.

She had been assigned to show me around the school and she hated every minute of it. I was no fool, and I could tell from her pretty manicured nails and her perfectly powdered nose that we were not meant to be friends. I didn't mind. Her banal attempts at conversation already had me bored. I was regretting my decision to move to Forks more and more.

She led me back to a large table which looked to house the more popular students. I quickly scanned their faces and decided that I would find few friends here. As if to confirm my thoughts, several of them actually averted their eyes as I sat down. I was a bit taken aback that they could be that superficial. Just because I didn't spend my weekends at the beautician didn't mean I wasn't a nice person.

I knew I didn't look great this morning, but that wasn't really my fault. My algebra curriculum was slightly different at Forks High and so I had spent all of last night revising my notes. I was not a big enough idiot to be unprepared on my first day. Thankfully, it was only algebra that I needed to work with. I was literally years ahead in all my other classes.

I may have also had a little performance anxiety that kept me awake after I had finished preparing. Forks High still made juniors take gym. I had always hated gym; it had no academic merit, and from what I had experienced, it was mostly used as a training ground for bullies. But now it seemed as though 'Gym' and I were to be reacquainted. I spent a good deal of the early hours of this morning wondering if forming a Mathletes team would be enough to get me out of it.

The conversation at the table had turned to some outing to a nearby beach called "La Push". I didn't fail to notice Jessica giving them all death stares, followed by a sideways glance at me. She didn't want to have to invite me. If she had bothered to ask, she would know that I would never, ever go.

I missed my friends in Phoenix. The size of that school guaranteed you would find people that had similar interests. Forks High had three hundred and fifty-eight students, myself included. There was almost twice that many in my junior class alone at my old school. The odds of me finding anyone here to enjoy the company of were low. With trepidation, I looked up to scan the cafeteria and see if I could find a single person that looked to share any of my interests.

What I saw, took my breath away.

Edward:

It was like someone knocked the fucking air out of my lungs. I scrunched my face up at the sensation. It was uncomfortable to say the least. And she just wouldn't stop fucking looking at me. _Doesn't she realise that shit is rude!_ I glared back at her trying to get the fucking message across.

"Girl does not have style," Alice said while unscrewing her mineral water. The new girl looked down, either scared or embarrassed, and the air returned to my lungs so I started breathing normally once more. I turned to talk to Alice about her, but she had spaced out again.

"Fuck, I'm thirsty. Pass me your drink," Jasper said frantically, obviously suffering a bad case of dry-mouth. Alice pouted but handed it over.

"Get your own next time," she huffed.

"I forgot, okay." He drank deeply from the bottle, throwing his head back and emptying almost all of its contents.

"Hey! Leave some for me," Alice squeaked, reaching over and pulling the bottle from his hands. "Oh Jazz, there's hardly any left. Go get me another one."

Jasper looked towards the cafeteria with loathing. "Just for you baby," he said, as he stood up with an audible effort.

The whole scene was making me really fucking uncomfortable. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I started to tap my fingers against the table—hard.

"Ha ha. New girl has a crush," Alice giggled. I turned and looked straight into her fucking eyes again. Well, at least that explained the feeling I was having. This time, I really fucking glared at her. She needed to stop this shit. She turned bright red as she quickly averted her eyes.

_What the fuck?_

She fucking blushed! I am not, by any standard, modest. I know that I'm good-looking—everyone knows. But most people know better than to fucking stare. How on earth this chick thought staring would help her chances was just beyond me.

I realised too late that now I was staring. I watched as Jessica leaned over and whispered something into new girl's ear, glancing over at me. I didn't need to be a fucking mind-reader. She was telling new girl I was staring. And sure enough, she looked up again. My body felt the need to just... jump out of my own skin. It was fucking off. I glared. And I put my fucking _all_ into that glare.

But this time, she glared back, and she looked really pissed. So I looked away first. I could feel when she stopped looking at me just after; my body felt normal about being in its own skin again.

Jasper returned to the table with two more bottles of flavoured mineral water. He passed one to Alice, but kept his own. I watched her as she screwed the top off and took a sip. A small fucking sip.

Jasper reached for his own bottle but knocked it off the table. He bent down and picked it up and—being the dumbass he is—he fucking opened it. That shit sprayed everywhere.

"Fucking hell, Jasper!" I yelled, as I pushed back from the table. It was no good; the damage was done and I had sticky fucking drink spattered across my shirt.

Alice was in hysterics, giggling uncontrollably. Jasper took one look at her and then he started too with his stupid Beavis laugh. I was pissed off. This day was only getting worse.

I grabbed some of Jasper's napkins and started mopping up the drink that was on my lunch tray, but gave up when I realised the task was futile. Alice and Jasper were finally starting to calm down and get in control of their freakin' giggles.

"That was hilarious," Alice gasped after a few moments, still trying to catch her breath. "New girl thought so too," she added, nodding in her direction.

I knew it even as she was saying though. I could _feel_ it.

And that was just fucking it—I was done with this shit. I pushed my chair out and looked to find her just fucking staring—again! Only this time, she had a fucking smirk on her face. I glared, and then I mouthed: "Take. A. Fucking. Picture." Very fucking deliberately. There was no way she could misinterpret that.

I was over lunch. It was just adding to the shit heap that was my day, so I pushed my chair out from the table loudly and stormed off. I went to the men's room, thinking at least I couldn't get stared at by the new girl in there, but I opened the door to hear Emmett and Rosalie going at it in one of the stalls. I just turned around and left without saying a word.

I still had too much time to kill to head straight to class, so I went and sat in my car, figuring that some music would do me good. Maybe I could fucking castrate whichever cloud of bad luck was hanging over me today with something heavy? It was worth a shot.

Bella:

He was angry—really angry. I watched him storm out of the cafeteria, more confused than I cared to admit being. He was gorgeous, and I had no right to stare, but, come on—gorgeous.

After first seeing him, I couldn't believe my eyes. I knew it was rude, but I just wanted to make sure he was real, so I looked once more. He caught me and I looked away before he could glare at me again. I know I should have stopped then too, but Jessica leaned over and told me he was looking at me. Well—not really. What she said was, "why the fuck is Edward Cullen looking at _you_? Do you know him?" I chose to ignore her nastiness and instead focused on the subject. When I checked, he was looking at me, which was just hypocritical, so I glared right back at him to make sure he knew it.

I resolved not to look again after that, but then he was yelling and cursing and everyone else in the cafeteria was staring, so I thought, "Why not?" He was furious at the other people at his table and mopping up his shirt. I could only assume someone had thrown a drink at him, and had no problem thinking he probably deserved it.

Just as I was about to look away, the girl at his table looked me straight in the eye and started nodding—slowly—like she was approving of me in a "You'll do," kind of way. Then she tilted her head toward the boy Jessica had called Edward Cullen, and made a dickhead gesture with her hand. I laughed—out loud—because there was something ridiculously funny about this little pixie-girl pumping her petite fist against her forehead. And I laughed because I had a feeling I already agreed with her.

I looked back toward the one named 'Edward' and not a moment after he looked over at me. I was too slow to wipe the grin off my face. Images of a dick sprouting out of his forehead popped into my mind and wouldn't go away. I knew I was staring again, and he did too. He mouthed something at me before turning and storming out of the room. I caught the word 'fucking' but that was it. I'm sure it wasn't anything nice, though.

I looked back towards the pixie-girl and noted the extremely satisfied smirk on her face. She met my eyes and winked at me. I gave her a crooked smile in return, and tried desperately to not get my hopes up that maybe I had found someone I could get along with, after all.

Edward:

I turned the key and climbed out of my car, mentally preparing myself for whatever the rest of this shit day would throw at me. I headed toward Biology, thankful that at least I would have some respite in that class. I never had to try in Banner's class—it was a form of escapism for me. We'd been through an accelerated learning program when we lived in Alaska and there was a heavy emphasis on the natural sciences—something I took very seriously. I had a solid interest in how the world worked. This was my fucking temple.

I didn't have a lab partner for this class, but that never, ever bothered me. And Banner never had a problem because my work was that fucking superior to the rest of that class. So, as I walked into the classroom, I was a bit fucking surprised to see the new girl sitting at my table. I stopped in the doorway, looking for another place I could ask Banner to seat her. It was the first time I noticed there were no other seats. And just like that, my potential break from the fucked up events of the day, was gone.

I walked over to my table purposely and slammed my bag down, making it perfectly clear I was not happy about the arrangement. She looked up at me and almost fell off her chair. I let out a chuffed snort at that as I sat down, so she fucking blushed again and flipped all her hair to hide behind. At least I didn't have to worry about her staring at me this time.

I pulled a few books and pens out of my bag before throwing it on the ground and then sat silently, waiting for Banner to show. I didn't look toward the new girl, and my skin told me she didn't look at me either. Banner showed up finally, after three fucking minutes of staring at his desk. He came bounding into the room looking all freakin' excited. And just as luck would fucking have it, he started handing out a fucking group assignment. He finished his circuit of the room at our table and placed a sheet of paper, some slides and a microscope in front of the new girl.

"Afternoon, Isabella," he said, too fucking cheerily. She smiled up at him with a big grin and Banner looked downright giddy.

"Okay, class. Today we are looking at slides of onion root tip cells. I want you to put them in order of stages of mitosis. Let's see who can finish first." He clapped his hands together and winked at the new girl beside me.

She smiled back at him—again—making me think there was something entirely fucking inappropriate going on between those two. Then she turned to me and pushed the microscope in my direction, inviting me to go first.

"I don't fucking think so," I snarled. "You will not be bringing my marks down. Do it yourself." I pushed the microscope back across to her. "And don't take all day either. I have to do this shit too, you know."

She fucking rolled her eyes at me. This girl was infuriating in the extreme. Her little hands reached forward and grabbed the microscope and firmly drew it back toward herself. There was something fascinating about how she held it—like it was the most normal thing in the world for her to be holding a fucking microscope.

Once she had the microscope positioned she reached for the box of slides. She lifted them out quickly, lining them up on the desk. She looked totally in her element and it was impossible for me to look away. Picking up her first slide, she sent one last glance my way before she began, smirking as she slipped the first slide in for viewing.

She snapped it in place like she'd done it a thousand times. Her eye went to the viewer and before even half a second had past, she was pulling away and removing the slide. Snap. In went the next one. Again, she barely glanced at it before pulling away and replacing it. Snap. She went through it all again, only possibly fucking faster. SNAP. The last slide went in and there was no way she had enough time to register what was on it before she pulled it out and pushed the microscope away.

She hadn't used a pen the entire time. Instead, she had lined up the slides in some kind of order. Now she was finished, she quickly scribbled out the five phases and the corresponding slides. The whole thing took her less than a minute. There was no way she was right.

She put her pen down and looked back up at me, still fucking smirking, then quickly placed all the slides back in the box and slid it across to me.

I hesitated briefly, knowing there was no way I could possibly work that fast. I knew what we were looking for, but I was also pretty sure you had to fucking look to find it. There was no way she could have noticed the subtle differences between the slides. It was pretty fucking obvious she was just being a smart-ass. So I reached for the microscope and slides, and then proceeded to identify and name each of them as fast as competently possible.

Over three minutes is how long that takes. I had no doubts about my answers. They were all correct. I double-checked anaphase and telophase, but I didn't need to. They were right. And it still hardly took any longer than her fucking charade.

I finished writing out my answers and then put my own pen down. It was only ten minutes into class. I looked around and saw that all the other lab partners were still struggling over their slides and knew it was going to be a long wait.

The new girl—Isabella—sat there, chewing on her fingernails. Disgusting. I checked out the nails on her other hand and saw all of them were chewed down to the quick. It's a filthy habit. Hands are fucking unclean.

I didn't even try to hide the grimace that spread across my face at the thought of all the shit she was putting in her mouth. She must have sensed the change in my expression as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at me and her hand returned to the table. I relaxed a bit then, fucking thankful she'd stopped that revolting display.

We avoided looking at each other or talking for the next thirty minutes. I spent the time thinking up ways I could talk Carlisle into riding with Rose to work. This had been the worst day I'd had since we moved to Forks and I couldn't let it happen again.

Banner snapped me out of my musings by clearing his throat. Looking around, I noticed most of the students had finished the exercise. Banner looked all excited while he waited for everyone to stop talking. When the noises stopped, he held up his hands gleefully.

"So, who would like to volunteer the answers to our little practical today?"

The new girl's arm shot up faster than I could run out of biology class. I swear Banner fucking squealed a bit when he saw it. It was like he was going all fan-girl about her or something.

"Yes, Isabella," he said, expectantly.

She opened her mouth and started to speak. It was the first time I'd heard her voice and it fucking gutted me. Not only that, she matched every slide correctly, and I fucking gaped at her. So did every other shithead in the room—Banner included.

Banner turned to the board and began making notes for us to copy, but I was still staring at the new girl beside me. She must have been some kind of genius. Petty, rude bitch, new girl had somehow morphed into someone worthy of my respect. I stopped fucking gaping and instead held out my hand.

"I'm Edward Cullen," I said, bestowing a rare and fucking high honour on her.

"I know," she replied, and I had the distinct feeling there was not much this girl didn't know.

She was looking down at my hand like it was a dog's paw or something and for a moment I thought she wasn't going to touch me. Just before I lowered it she reached her own hand across and clasped mine.

"I'm Bella Swan," she said, shaking my hand gently with hers.

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**Thanks for reading.**


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